Newcomer brand Beyond Dark wanted a bigger bite of the UK’s dark chocolate market. So they set out to make their little drops famous for ‘pleasure’. But many brands try to ‘own’ emotions. The challenge was to own this space in a way that felt believable and newsworthy, without the luxury of a big advertising budget.

Beyond Dark knew its chocolate tasted great so it embarked on a mission: to create the first ever scale for measuring pleasure. This would allow them to prove their pleasure credentials by measuring other lovely moments in life – and of course rival brands – versus drops of their chocolate, making Beyond Dark ‘the measure of pleasure’. An idea with the product’s unique ‘drop’ format at its heart.

Our happy news got foodies, scientists and advertising world talking, resulting in an immediate sales uplift of 50% on the day the news was released. All the headlines, TV coverage, 7000 new Twitter followers, and over 2000 inbound links propelled Beyond Dark from page 22 to the top of UK search rankings for ‘dark chocolate’. This attention persuaded several retailers to stock Beyond Dark while Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets, doubled distribution and took on new flavours. After two months, Beyond Dark sales were up 327% – a very pleasurable sales uplift that continues to climb.

To become newsworthy, the pleasure scale would need to be both scientifically credible and entertaining. So Beyond Dark teamed up with neuroscientists to hold a pleasure study. 100 participants were fitted up with the latest ‘EEG’ brainwave-reading headsets, set up to analyse pleasure for the first time. They then took a series of tests – blowing bubbles, stroking kittens, beautiful music... The documentary and news were released on ‘Blue Monday’, officially the nation’s most depressing day. The findings then became the advertising, from outdoor to the pack itself. For once, a brand’s emotional claims had been proven.